And Another Teacher Speaks Out

I am a teacher and I give realistic report cards. What do I get in return. Parents who verbally abuse and threaten me, spread rumors and demand that their childs grade be changed.

They will not listen to anyone that their child is just not performing, not doing the homework, not listening, etc. they just want the A just for their child being in class. Or in one case not being in class.

Parents, teachers do not like to give poor grades but if the situation warrents it they do give them. Don’t shoot the messenger. Talk to your children and then discount most of what they say. Children will say anything to get out of trouble.

Instead thank the teacher and ask for strategies to help the satudent improve. Don’t think that the teacher has not tried everything to get the child to perform.

Sometimes it is up to the child and the parent to get real.

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I don’t know why a person who says something like this wants to spend her/his career working with children. The sad thing is that she sounds like several GW and RHS teachers whom my children have had to endure. It’s flabbergasting that he/she wouldn’t chose a different job.

I am frightened by the thought that you ARE a teacher! I can only hope that you are not teaching children how to write. There are way too many errors in your statement for me to feel comfortable. There is no apostrophe with ‘child’s grade’ ~ for future reference, you spell ‘warrents’ WARRANTS and ‘satudent’ STUDENT.

We know these kids and parents exist. But the parents who are active on this blog are the ones who value education – and that includes respect for teachers. We have been treated just as poorly as you have. Consider –

1. Teachers were never asked for their input before forcing terc, em and cmp on them.

2. Teachers have been forced to get extensive re-training and years of professional development for…arithmetic!

3. From terc literature – one of the main goals is “to communicate math content to teachers.”

4. From cmp literature – “communicate math to teachers.”

5. More from cmp – “The teachers Guides contain extensive help with mathematics.”

6. From Elizabeth Phillips, one of the developers of cmp – “The curriculum provides help for the students, of course, but, primarily, it is a help for the teacher.”

7. Our own teachers do not even host the math nights.

8. Nancy Schultz describes our MS teachers as “sponges who do everything I tell them to do.”

Our administration has done everything short of dressing our teachers in clown suits. What are parents supposed to think of teachers when the administration makes them out to be incompetent? I hope you, and all teachers here, are insulted and embarassed by how you’ve been treated.

If you want friggin respect, it’s time to do something decent for the kids and parents who do give a damn.